Yep, and don’t forget they did have an HD stream of the Sydney main channel, which magically disappeared on the day the Melbourne and Adelaide HD channels launched (probably the AFL’s doing again).
SBS HD is still in MPEG2 unlike the other HD channels which are/will be in MPEG4.
I think ABC HD should have OK quality, although it’ll certainly be very interesting to see how they manage to fit in four SD MPEG2 channels, one HD MPEG4 channel and two audio streams (Double J & ABC Jazz) on the multiplex.
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And Seven’s arguement will be that they are still #1 so who cares about the opposition. People will clearly still tune in to MKR or whatever regardless of HD or SD.
If Seven twigs that lack of HD is directly impacting their ratings or revenue position, then that may prompt them to change. So far I imagine that’s far from happening.
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A lot easier than some of the commercials who have 5xSD MPEG2 and 1xHD MPEG4. The audio streams don’t take up much space.
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It’s such a shame that Brisbane and Sydney will miss seeing Seven’s summer schedule of hit shows like Never Teach Your Wife To Drive in HD.
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Can you stop missing out perth ? We don’t get 7HD so add us to the list.
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NBN and WIN did at least go with the 1st of a month …
There is nothing logical to me about choosing Tuesday 6th to launch it.
Maybe techs are working behind the scenes and this is the quickest it can be up.
How do you know they don’t just want to fire it up as soon as technically possible? It’s not like a HD simulcast is really of any significance that demands some sort of strategic launch date.
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The ABC covers more area than WIN and SC ? So would be more work to convert to HD?
i mean won’t all of Australia get it ?
Nine HD launched on a Thursday last November, Ten HD launched on Wednesday back in March, so ABC HD launching on a Tuesday doesn’t really bother me.
The ABC has a vast national network and yes, it’s already been confirmed that all Australians (with MPEG4-capable TVs, of course) should have access to ABC HD on December 6.
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Every transmitter site (400+) and 2 satellites will launch the new service at once. The only ABC viewers that will miss out will be Foxtel iQ2 satellite customers.
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I for one couldn’t care less what date they launched it on, but it’s great to see viewers will be able to watch the ABC in HD come early next month.
In other news, I just received this email from Southern Cross on the progress of their HD channel
It won’t be before the end of this year. But we are working on early 2017 launch. Stay tuned!
I’m sure they will still beat Seven to the punch though! 
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Nine HD was launched on a Thursday to coincide with the start of Test cricket for the year.
Seven HD and Ten HD were more of a “soft” launch and weren’t publicised as much as the Nine or ABC launches. With good reason based on what we’ve seen!
The fact that the ABC are promoting this gives me a bit more confidence that the ABC will be showing the majority of their content in native HD (unlike Ten) and that it will the main channel 24/7 everywhere (unlike Seven).
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hearing rumours that Prime7 are getting jumpy with Channel Seven and looking at moving to HD sooner rather than later.
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That won’t be a good look for Seven if Prime gets its main channel in HD in NSW before they do!
I would have thought Prime would just copy whatever 7 does and make 7 Mate the HD channel in the areas out of Vic and SA
If the sbove scenario were to become a reality, I’d expect plenty of UHF antennas to go up across Sydney, pointing south towards Wollongong. The Central Coast would also be quite interesting, where both Seven & Prime7 are being retransmitted from the local translators.
At least the programming on Prime7 in Wollongong & Central Coast is the same as Seven Sydney 24/7, with the only differences being local news updates & advertising.
I can’t see it happening… i think the actual number of people prepared to take such steps just to watch Channel 7 shows in HD would be minuscule.
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I remember way back when Prime7 went to 1080i (from the days when Seven HD was 576p). That was very quickly thwarted. Do they have the balls to go against Seven again?